Oleksiy Kolesnik was rescued after spending hours sitting on top of his cupboard, having been caught unaware by the sudden surge of floodwaters inundating his living room. His reaction was one of shock: “The water came really quickly… It happened so fast”. As Kolesnik waded ashore, surrounded by murky coffee-colored water filled with plastic bags and debris, he was greeted by dogs barking, and people retrieving their possessions, looking exhausted. This was the scene in Kherson, the regional capital where the destruction of the Kakhovka dam on the Dnipro River had caused widespread chaos.
While Kherson, a hub for Ukraine’s agriculture industry in the south, had large areas still untouched by the flood, low-lying zones had become panoramas of floating debris and stagnant water. Across the region, officials were under urgent pressure to solve numerous problems caused by the flood’s impact and the draining of the Kakhovka water reservoir system, which affects drinking water and irrigation systems. All of this was taking place in an area where battles still raged.
The rescue operation in Kherson involved boats being dispatched to retrieve stranded, frightened people from the top floors of their homes. There was no sense of panic, just the awareness of the immense challenge facing them. Artillery booms could still be heard occasionally in the background, and dangerous situations were not uncommon. For instance, the evacuation of the Ostriv neighborhood, which had been one of the city’s danger zones for shelling, was necessary.
Many parts of the Ostriv neighborhood were under water, and even those that were not swamped yesterday had been engulfed today. Larisa Kharchenko, a retired nurse, was one of the affected residents. Kharchenko described the situation as unprecedented and frustrating, and felt like someone ought to apprehend Russian President Vladimir Putin for the crisis erupting in Ukraine. “It just keeps coming,” she sighed. Alla Snegor, a 55-year-old biology teacher, also expressed concern about the quality of the water in the flood, warning people about the presence of various toxins and other pollutants. Serhiy Litovsky an electrician, stressed the possibility of long-term agricultural struggles in southern Ukraine, which could well be impacted for many years to come.
